ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS TOOLS FOR SPACE REPRESENTATION

Abstract

This paper discusses how architectural serves as a tool for democratizing knowledge about built environments. It highlights how such photography enables viewers to engage with images of places they have not personally visited and how, over time, architectural photographers developed a series of shared visual codes to assist in the task of translating three-dimensional structures into two-dimensional records. The article concludes that photographers use specific tools—outlined throughout the text—to create images that adhere to these codes while developing an expressive and poetic approach to representing architecture and cities. To support this, the study draws on extensive theoretical and iconographic research. The authors Arlindo Machado, Guilherme Wisnik, Giselle Beiguelman, and Ignasi Solà-Morales guide the reflection on the historical role of photography as a document of memory, while the work of photographers Julius Shulman, Nelson Kon, and Ana Mello exemplifies specific cases within this field of practice.